Friday, June 17, 2011

The Secret Ingredient by Laura Schaefer


     Warning: reading this book will make you crave tea and scones.  Not that that is a bad thing!  Annie and her friends are back after helping to save The Steeping Leaf teashop in The Teashop Girls reviewed here.  In The Secret Ingredient Annie is attempting to create an original scone recipe and at the same time publish a food blog while gathering a following to win an entry into a contest.  Annie shares her recipes with us her along with her blog posts.  Annie is also dealing with understanding the love/hate relationship with Zach especially after he kisses her.
      Middle grade girls will relate to Annie and the secondary characters. They will enjoy her friends and how they help her and support her.  They'll laugh at the awkwardness between her and Zach.  They'll love the relationship between Annie and her grandmother which is so loving and caring.   They may be inspired to start a blog or even to bake scones and try new teas.  
     The illustrations are charming and will add to the desire to taste a scone or drink chai latte (artwork was not final).  While not absolutely necessary to read The Teashop Girls first I would suggest to do so.  Recommended for fans of that book, contemporary fiction and friendship stories and LITTLE BLOG ON THE PRAIRIE by Cathleen Davitt Bell.  Read as an ebook arc courtesy of Simon and Schuster.  The Secret Ingredient will be available June 28, 2011 and on June 29 the author, Laura Schaefer will be stopping by this blog so come on back!
**Note:Received the book and read some of it again.  This time got to see the final illustrations and photos added to the blog posts and recipes.  Yummy.  And guess what? Used the vegetable sushi recipe for lunch :) Next up?  One of those tea frappes.

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